That's when I saw it. The clutch lever dangled uselessly from the handlebar, broken right before the joint where it attaches to the cable. Horrified, I had to walk away from the bike to control myself during the initial shock. It was all I could do not to burst out crying. I can't believe this!!! I'm at the top of an Alpine pass, in who KNOWS what country by now (Italy, by a few meters), with nothing but a coffee shop around for kilometers, with no clutch?! F...

Perhaps it's because I'm an American... or a woman... or a combination of the two, but I just don't trust that the car in front of me won't brake or swerve or that the road is completely clear of debris or water or oil.

Italian riders seem to trust all of the above. But... I must say that drivers of cars here actually pay attention to the process of driving, and at all times know what's in their rear view mirror. If it happens to be a bike -- or a small Fiat -- they will move over as far as possible into what we call the emergency lane in order to allow that vehicle to pass even though oncoming traffic is, well, oncoming. But oncoming traffic will also move over into the emergency lane so that there's enough room to squeeze through.

This is the route of our honeymoon trip. The first night we didn't get any further than the Best Western Park Plaza hotel in Puyallup, Wa. This night was paid for by my wife's co-workers at, Xenex. Thank you all !!!

The following two weeks we both rode our Honda GoldWings to eastern Washington, back over the North Cascades HWY to HWY 9 and then north into British Columbia. While in Canada we looped around and wanted to travel into Banff but because of all the forest fires in the area we were prevented from riding there.
We entered back into the United States via Montana thinking we would ride through Glacier National Park.

It happened so quickly, one day we were having a chat with Bruno (my new best mate in Bali, and our host), just talking about going to Flores seeing the three Kelimutu craters and talking about time frames. Doug was there too, we were all adding our thoughts when Bruno suddenly announces:”To hell with it, tomorrow we leave at 5 am and I take a holiday!” He also very kindly offered Doug the use of his R80 Basic for the trip as he was taking his R80GS. Suddenly we are a gang, and boy do we feel cool

Motorcycling is a great hobby of mine. I ride all my life and I owned different [motorcycles] and I ended with big kawasaki ninja. This motorbike has matured 147 horse powers, some serious bark, it is that fast like a bullet and comfortable for a long trips. I travel a lot and my favorite destination lead through so called Chernobyl "dead zone" It is 130kms from my home. Why favourite? because one can ride there for hours and not meet any single car and not to see any single soul. People left and nature is blooming, there are beautiful places, woods, lakes. Roads haven't been built or repaired since 80th but in places where they haven't been ridden by trucks or army technics, they stay in the same condition as 20 years ago. Time do not ruin roads.

24/1/04 We awoke to find an emu just outside our tent eating grass seeds, skittish but not too concerned by our presence at his breakfast. A short ride to Thredbo, one of the premier ski areas in winter and rapidly becoming a mountain bike mecca in summer. Using the same chairlifts to the top and a long track down, the armour clad cyclists punish their bikes. We undertook the more sedate, probably no less strenuous, option of walking the 13 km track to the top of Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, a mere hill in world terms at 2228m, and back to the chairlift.